Clawhauser Goes on a Date
by Goku Yamaguchi
Summary: When the lovable chubby cheetah starts to feel lonely, Judy and Nick decide to help their friend find some love!
1. Chapter 1

"Is it just me, or has Clawhauser seemed different lately?" the words rang out of Nick Wilde's mouth. He was on duty for the ZPD with his partner and girlfriend Judy Hopps, and the two had been assigned to scout the town in case of any wrongdoing.

"Now that you mention it, yeah." Judy answered. She hadn't noticed it at first, but their chubby cheetah friend had seemed a bit down the last few days. The usually upbeat front desk officer had shied away from the donuts in the break room (which was unusual for him) and generally seemed different than usual.

"What do you think is up?"

"I dunno. Maybe cheetahs go through some phase every now and then."

"No, that doesn't sound right. Y'know what? I'm gonna ask him about it when our shift ends."

"Nick! It's none of our business!"

"Carrots, is Ben one of your friends?"

"Well, yeah…"

"And are you genuinely worried about his well-being?"

She nodded.

"Then as concerned friends we should talk to him and see what's bugging him."

"Fine," Judy sighed after thinking about it for a moment.

Later that evening Judy hung up the keys to their police car and was walking out to the front desk to wait for Nick when she found him standing next to it, even though it was empty.

"Waiting for him?" she asked, and a nod confirmed her suspicions. They didn't have to wait long as the cheetah came out just a few minutes later.

"Hey Ben!" Judy said, trying to be cheerful.

"Oh, hey guys," was the sullen response, "What's up?"

"Look," Nick began, "Judy and I both noticed that you seem kind of down. You wanna talk about it?"

"I guess," Ben sighed, "Every time I go around the city, I notice all the cute couples. And at work, I see your chemistry, and-" he started tearing up, so he put his paws over his eyes as best as he could, "oh, I just feel so lonely."

As their cheetah friend broke down into a fountain of tears Judy and Nick looked at each other, both quite lost on what to say.

"We… we can help you out, Ben." Judy finally piped up.

"R-really?" Clawhauser said, sniffling.

"Yeah… right Nick?" she said, looking over at her partner, who quietly nodded, "Why don't we head over to your place, so we-"

She never got the chance to finish her sentence as their big cat friend almost immediately put the two in a bearhug.

"Oh thank you guys so much! You're the best friends ever!" he said, a bit more upbeat, "I'll drive us over there right now!"

Getting into Benjamin's car (which was almost fittingly a Jaguar) Nick and Judy both wondered what they were getting themselves into. Soon enough, though, they would find out; once they reached Clawhauser's apartment they walked in and took a look around. The first thing they noticed was a big poster of Gazelle on the wall of his bedroom. Apart from that, the rooms were mostly a magenta color (save for the kitchen and bathroom, which were white), and there were shelves full of notebooks, manga, some DVDs, and the occasional CD. The kitchen was the biggest one either of them had seen for one person, and it was obvious that the cheetah liked to have a full pantry. On a desk in the living room was a computer, and there was a big TV mounted on the wall.

"How much you think they're paying him to sit at a desk?" Nick mumbled. Judy elbowed him for that.

"So… welcome to my place! _Mi casa es su casa_." Ben said, "Can I get you guys anything?"

"I'm good, you?" Nick said, looking at Judy.

"Got any tomato juice?" she asked.

"Oh, plenty! I'll be right back!" Clawhauser said, running into the kitchen. He already seemed more cheerful with guests over. Almost as soon as he went into the kitchen he was back with a large glass of the red beverage. Putting it down on the coffee table, he sat on the couch as the fox and rabbit sat in two chairs.

"So, how are you guys going to help me?" the cheetah asked.

"Well," Nick started, "do you use online dating?"

"No… it never really came to mind, honestly. Actually that's a bit surprising, knowing me," Ben chuckled.

"There's this thing, it's called Timber, ever heard of it?"

"Sounds familiar."

"Well, you can get it on your phone. Why don't we start there?"

Clawhauser shrugged in agreement.


	2. Chapter 2

Within a few moments Clawhauser had installed Timber, although he did have to sacrifice a few apps to get it.

"My Candy Crush levels… gone…" one could hear him murmur.

"Alright, let's get you set up," Nick said, "first, what's your username?"

"Uhm… how does gazellefan sound?"

Nick glanced at him with a sideways look and said, "BenClaw sounds a lot better, honestly. Let's use that. Now, email?"

Clawhauser chose to type it in himself so potential fanfic readers wouldn't spam anyone's inbox.

"Alright, now we need a profile picture. You wanna take one or upload one?"

"Ooh! I've got a good one!" Clawhauser snatched the phone, scrolled through his camera roll for several minutes, and finally came upon the picture he wanted, "How's this?"

Nick and Judy were swiftly shown what may have been the strangest picture either of them had seen; it was Clawhauser, alright, but he was riding an X-Wing as he wielded a sword in one hand and the head of the Loch Ness Monster in the other. Their natural response was to give the cheetah puzzled looks.

"I, uh, had it commissioned a while back." Clawhauser mumbled.

"I think we'd be better off having you just taking a picture," Judy suggested. After taking a few shots they managed to get a good one that was decent enough for his profile picture.

"Alright Benny, what do you like?" Nick asked.

"Oh, let's see, Gazelle, anime, Star Wars, donuts, drawing…" the cheetah began to list.

"That should be enough. Now we just hit 'Confirm', and… there! Your profile is set!"

"Oh, good!" Clawhauser said with glee, "… Now what?"

"We'll go through the possible matches and you'll choose."

"Aw man!"

"What's the matter?"

"I'm terrible at choosing things!"

"We'll set you up on a blind date then."

"I dunno, what if they're awful? What if they're just plain weird?"

"We won't let you meet up with a weirdo. We promise." Judy said reassuringly. Clawhauser decided to wait in the other room as Nick and Judy picked a random mammal.

They got their result, gave Clawhauser his phone, and went home.


End file.
